Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The Rose Kennedy Greenway is a series of parks and trails that was created once the Central Artery going above Boston went underground during the Big Dig. This space is used by many for recreation and also by street vendors and food trucks. Here is a map of the Greenway:

Along Atlantic Avenue and Purchase Street,
there are shared use lanes that cyclists use to get from one end of the Greenway
to the other. I saw a lot of people bicycling in the street, so it’s not very
dangerous. Cars there are used to sharing the street with bicyclists that ride
to and from work every day.

Riding in the
Greenway:

I seldom saw people
ride through the greenway weekday mornings when I used to walk from the North
End to South Boston during the summer. Bicycling is not allowed on the Rose
Kennedy Greenway. I would see people ride their bike along the wide paths at
the beginning of the Greenway (near North Station) but bicyclists get
discouraged at the end (Near South Station) because the trail narrows down and
there are a lot of pedestrians. Here is a video of someone riding through the
Greenway.

As you can see the
fact that bicycles are not allowed doesn’t completely discourage people from
biking through it. However, in the weekday mornings when people are biking to
work, they would prefer to take the less winding shared lane on the street.